To be fair, I have to follow up on my post from the other day about the Bet Shemesh - Elad connection.

At a Degel Hatorah rally in Beitar Ilit for the upcoming elections, MK Moshe Gafni commented on the issue with Shlomei Emunim. Gafni explained, again, that the deal in Elad was 1 for 1 - 2013 Degel supports Shlomei Emunim's candidae in Elad (ie Porush) and in 2018 Shlomei Emunim would support Degel's candidate in Elad (ie Pindros).

Gafni added that there was also a deal in Bet Shemesh, but it was a separate deal and had no connection to the deal in Elad, and there was also a separate deal in Beitar. Somehow they invented some sort of connection between the deals.

So, Gafni explicitly has now denied the existence of such a connection betwene the Bet Shemesh and Elad deals, so I have to give him credit for that. And, that leaves open the question for Meir Porush why he thinks there is a connection, or why he is connecting the deals when there is no connection. Being that the written agreement has not been publicized for public scrutiny, the public has no way of knowing which side is correct and which is fudging on the details. It is basically a "he said he said" argument. So let them argue - Gafni even said, at the same rally, sometimes machlokes is good - maybe it will turn out good for them, maybe not.

As an interesting side point, Gafni said a bit more about the broken deal in Bet Shemesh. Gafni said that Degel was supposed to run a candidate for mayor in Bet Shemesh, and Rav Gershon Edelstein told them to hold a lottery/raffle between the various reps as to which would be the candidate. Then they went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky and he said not to run a candidate but to support Abutbol for mayor. "We are proud that we have always followed the instructions of the gedolim, from the founding of the party until today".

So basically Gafni admits to having broken the deal in Bet Shemesh and thinks it isnt even cosnidered having been broken because he did what the gedolim told him to do. I do wonder if when they asked Rav Kanievsky they also added the fact that there is a deal in place with Shlomei Emunim and if that would change anything.. Whether he did or did not, he explicitly admits that Degel broke the deal. The question is if that has any connection to Elad or not. But even if there is no direct connection to Elad - do you keep your side of agreements when your partner is busy pulling fast ones over you on your other partnership deals?

sources: Behadrei and Kikar